Project Imo obtains Microsoft grant
We hinted at some big news. Well, our Director of Integrated Technology, Dennis “Dino” Perlot, has this to say,
“Great news: We have qualified for a Microsoft grant for non-profits. In a nutshell, they gave us thousands of dollars worth of software and services annually for free. What did we get?
Project Imo is the recipient of over $105,000 worth of technical software capacity over a 10 year period including 365 Business Premium, Dynamic 365 Sales Enterprise, PowerApps, and state-of-the-art data storage.”
This gives Project Imo the capacity to really grow our infrastructure and direct more donations from our generous Villager into direct programs and related expenses. When we collect youth program data for schools, it will be in some of the most secure cloud storage on Earth. We will have premiere business software that elevates our administrative capacity for a decade.
This grant was part of Microsoft for Nonprofits and we simply cannot thank them enough.
The full breakdown of this grant is here.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
What is it: Microsoft 365 Business Premium was purpose built for small and medium-sized businesses. It provides them with the best-in-class productivity capabilities of Microsoft 365 Business Standard plus advanced security features to safeguard business data and assets across devices.
Retail Cost: 10 licenses at $20 per user per month, or $2400 yearly
Impact for Project IMO: Avoids the cost of the applications we need to run a business along with secure data storage and collaboration tools.
Dynamic 365 Sales Enterprise
What it is: Dynamics 365 is a customer relationship management system similar to Salesforce. It provides facilities to reach out to and track donors along with an artificial intelligence engine suggesting “the next best action”. Included are revenue prediction tools and facilities to track volunteers.
Retail Cost: 5 licenses at $95 per user per month, or $5700 yearly
Impact for Project IMO: We can leverage the experience built into these powerful tools to drive Project Imo growth without the burden of developing them ourselves or having to purchase them.
Power Apps
What is it: Power Apps is a tool for building low-code/no-code desktop and phone based applications. It supports the digital transformation of manual and outdated processes.
Retail Cost: $20 per user per month, or $2400 yearly
Impact for Project IMO: Power Apps is how we build apps like mobile event sign up, youth citizen science for STEAM education programs, integrated program assessment practices, program weather checkers, and many more to support and grow our community.
Retail Cost: 5 licenses at $95 per user per month, or $5700 yearly
Impact for Project IMO: We can leverage the experience built into these powerful tools to drive Project Imo growth without the burden of developing them ourselves or having to purchase them.
Azure $3500 grant
What is it: Azure is the world’s leading cloud platform with over 54 data centers around the planet. They process over 1 trillion (yes that’s TRILLION) security signals a day. They offer HIPPA compliant data protection and have over 240 security certifications.
Impact for Project IMO: this will cover the cost of our database and other facilities in Azure and provide the protection we need.
